System and method of managing contact information of a terminal recognized by a vehicle

Abstract

A system and a method of managing contact information of a terminal recognized by a vehicle include: a communication unit, which communicates with one or more terminals located in a vehicle and recognizes the terminal, and which receives information stored in the recognized terminal; a connection confirming unit which confirms a function, to which the terminal recognized through the communication unit is connected through communication, among the functions provided by an Audio, Video, and Navigation (AVN) system of the vehicle; a priority calculating unit, which calculates a priority of the terminal with respect to other terminals according to the connection between the terminal confirmed by the connection confirming unit and the function provided by the AVN system and generates priority list information for maintaining contact information stored in the terminal; and a contact information renewing unit, which downloads and stores the contact information stored in the terminal in a linked database according to the priority list information generated by the priority calculating unit or deletes the contact information stored in the database.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system for managing contact information of a terminal recognized by a vehicle, the system comprising:
 a communication unit, which communicates with one or more terminals located in a vehicle and recognizes the terminal, and receives information stored in the recognized terminal; 
 a connection confirming unit, which confirms a function, to which the terminal recognized through the communication unit is connected through communication, among the functions provided by an Audio, Video, and Navigation (AVN) system of the vehicle; 
 a priority calculating unit, which calculates a priority of the corresponding terminal with respect to other terminals according to the connection between the terminal confirmed by the connection confirming unit and the function provided by the AVN system and generates priority list information for maintaining contact information stored in the terminal; and 
 a contact information renewing unit, which downloads and stores the contact information stored in the terminal in a linked database according to the priority list information generated by the priority calculating unit or deletes the contact information stored in the database. 
 
     
     
       2. A method of managing contact information of a terminal recognized by a vehicle, the method being performed by a system for managing contact information including the communication unit communicating with one or more terminals located in a vehicle, a connection confirming unit, a priority calculating unit, and a contact information renewing unit, the method comprising:
 a connection confirming process of confirming a function, to which the terminal located in the vehicle and recognized by the communication unit is connected through communication, among the functions provided by an Audio, Video, and Navigation (AVN) system of the vehicle, which is performed by the connection confirming unit; 
 a priority calculating process of calculating a priority of the corresponding terminal with respect to other terminals according to the connection between the terminal confirmed in the connection confirming process and the function provided by the AVN system and generating priority list information for maintaining contact information stored in the terminal, which is performed by the priority calculating unit; and 
 a contact information renewing process of downloading and storing the contact information stored in the terminal in a linked database according to the priority list information generated by the priority calculating process or deleting the contact information stored in the database, which is performed by the contact information renewing unit. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the connection confirming process includes:
 an operation in which when the terminal of a user is located in the vehicle, the communication unit starts a connection with the terminals registered in the AVN system of the vehicle through communication; 
 an operation in which the connection confirming unit determines whether the terminal registered in the AVN system of the vehicle is connected through communication as a result of the connection with the communication unit through communication, and when the communication terminal is connected through communication, the connection confirming unit determines whether the corresponding terminals is connected with a hands-free function provided by the AVN system of the vehicle through communication; 
 an operation in which when the corresponding terminal is connected with a hands-free function through communication as a result of the determination of operation, a priority calculating starting operation for performing the priority calculating process is performed, and when the corresponding terminal is not connected with a hands-free function through communication, the connection confirming unit determines whether the corresponding terminal is connected with a contact information transmission function provided by the AVN system of the vehicle through communication; 
 an operation in which when the corresponding terminal is connected with the contact information transmission function through communication as a result of the determination of operation, the priority calculating starting operation for performing the priority calculating process is performed, and when the corresponding terminal is not connected with the contact information transmission function through communication, the connection confirming unit determines whether the contact information of the corresponding terminal is previously stored and exists in the AVN system of the vehicle; 
 an operation in which when the contact information of the corresponding terminal is previously stored and exists as a result of the determination of operation, the priority calculating starting operation for performing the priority calculating process is performed, and when the contact information of the corresponding terminal is not previously stored and does not exist, the connection confirming unit determines whether the corresponding terminal is connected to another application function provided by the AVN system of the vehicle, other than the hands-free function or the contact information transmission function, through communication; and 
 an operation in which when the corresponding terminal is connected to another application function through communication as a result of the determination of operation, the priority calculating starting operation for performing the priority calculating process is performed, and when the corresponding terminal is not connected to another application function through communication, the connection confirming unit changes a communication target to a terminal of a next order and starts a connection through communication. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein another application function provided by the AVN system of the connection confirming process is any one of a function of transmitting or receiving a text message or an SNS message to or from a contact stored in the terminal, and an audio and video streaming function of streaming and playing an audio file, a video file, and the like stored in the terminal. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the priority
 calculating process includes: 
 determining, by the priority calculating unit, whether the corresponding terminal is connected to the contact information transmission function, and when the corresponding terminal is connected to the contact information transmission function as a result of the determination, determining, by the priority calculating unit, the corresponding terminal  1  as the terminal of the first priority for maintaining the priority of the contact information and generating priority list information; and 
 when the corresponding terminal is not connected to the contact information transmission function as a result of the determination of operation, determining, by the priority calculating unit, whether the corresponding terminal is connected to the hands-free function, and when the corresponding terminal is connected to the hands-free function as a result of the determination, determining, by the priority calculating unit, the corresponding terminal as the terminal of the second priority for maintaining the priority of the contact information and generating priority list information. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the priority calculating process further includes:
 when the corresponding terminal is not connected to the hands-free function as a result of the determination of operation, determining, by the priority calculating unit, whether the corresponding terminal is connected to another application function provided by the AVN system of the vehicle, other than the hands-free function or the contact information transmission function, and when the corresponding terminal is connected to another application function as a result of the determination, determining, by the priority calculating unit, the corresponding terminal as the terminal of the third priority for maintaining the priority of the contact information and generating priority list information; and 
 determining, by the priority calculating unit, other terminals, of which the priorities are not determined in operations among the terminals connected through communication in operation, as the terminals of the fourth priority for maintaining the priority of the contact information and generating priority list information. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the contact information renewing process includes:
 when the priority list information is generated in the priority calculating process, starting a renewal of the contact information, and searching, by the contact information renewing unit, the database and determining whether a storage space for storing the contact information is insufficient; 
 when the storage space for storing the contact information is not insufficient in the database as a result of the determination of operation, downloading the contact information from the terminal and storing the downloaded contact information in the database, and renewing the contact information included in the database; and 
 when the storage space is insufficient in the database as the result of the determination of operation, determining whether an attempt to connect to the terminals registered in the AVN system of the vehicle of operation is terminated, and when the attempt to connect is terminated, deleting, by the contact information renewing unit, the contact information of the terminal corresponding to the last priority in the database with reference to the priority list information generated in the priority calculating process, and then downloading the contact information from the corresponding terminal, storing the downloaded contact information in the database, and then renewing the contact information.